Field
The present disclosure relates to a magnetic resonance probe and a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) apparatus comprising the same. The present disclosure also relates to methods of detecting magnetic resonance using the same.
Description of the Related Art
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a well-established spectroscopic technique for the identification of chemical species and is broadly applied in many different fields including synthetic and supramolecular chemistry, catalysis, materials science, biology and medicine. In a typical NMR experiment, the sample is exposed to a static magnetic (B0) field. After excitation of the nuclear spin system using a short radio frequency (RF) pulse, the processing magnetization is detected. The recorded resonance frequencies (peaks in the NMR spectra) are a probe of the local electronic environment of a specific nucleus in a molecule. Additionally, fine structure such as J-couplings and dipolar couplings are a measure of chemical bonding and distance between two nuclei, respectively. NMR is a non-invasive technique and provides direct quantitative information.
Microcoils and microcoil array resonators have been used as detectors in microfluidic electromagnetic probes. However, the sensitivity, efficiency and the RF field homogeneity of these coils constitute a bottleneck for the development of the further applications of electromagnetic probes.